I believe that Red Ribbon Week can be effective in bringing awareness to drug and alcohol problems. Over time, I hope that the program will find more innovative ways to spread their message and students will become less apathetic towards issues that may have a large effect on the rest of their lives. While the campaign raises some awareness about issues regarding teenage drug and alcohol abuse, it doesn’t do a good job in making that awareness stay in the minds of young people. The unfortunate result of this is that the good intentions and messages behind Red Ribbon Week are lost students go through the motions and don’t retain the message trying to be spread.
Many schools around the area require students to take part in essay competitions and, for young students especially, these assignments are a turn-off to the entire campaign. Students are encouraged, and sometimes required, to take part in special activities and contests over the course of the designated week.Įven though Red Ribbon Week itself is a great idea, the implementation of the program often leaves students apathetic and sometimes even annoyed with the yearly event. The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness about drug and alcohol use among teenagers. To really make an impression on children they need more than a ribbon.įrom kindergarten to senior year, kids across the country participate in Red Ribbon Week. I think that more action needs to be taken in order to have the students more enthused about the prevention week, and want to learn more and take action in staying clear of drug and alcohol abuse. The reason most kids don’t heed this warning is because they’ve heard it all before. I think the purpose of this event is clear, although most students don’t really take time to see a deeper meaning than the bland slogan that we all have heard from our peers, “Don’t use drugs or alcohol.” Every kid has heard this exact statement at least a hundred times throughout their school lives it’s become a regular, antagonizing warning from most adults. If there was a solution it would be to get students more involved, and have them know what is going on. I feel the buildup of this special event in schools is highly underrated, and should not be overlooked as it is. By the end of the day, or week for that matter, the school’s floors, and any nook or cranny usually contains one of these bright red ribbons crinkled and disregarded. The younger children may be proudly supporting the ribbon they had their friends poke through their shirts, or pants, while the older kids aren’t even sure what day it is. As you walk through the halls on this given week it seems to always be the same scene. My reasoning for this is that it is not only an important time in schools across America but also important to society and the growth of the adolescent. In my opinion, Red Ribbon Week is fairly ineffective. We need something more to Red Ribbon Week in order to help solve the problems. I believe that if the students at a younger age were exposed to the consequences, this problem we have with drugs at young ages would decrease. I feel as though if there were more student interaction, other than playing dress up for a week, we could see more results. The week usually ends with Friday as Red Day. For example, Monday could be Super Hero Day and Tuesday could be Tie-dye Day and so on. Be drug free.” During those days, our school’s SADD club chooses fun themes for each day. This year’s slogan is, “Respect yourself. It seems to be all fun and games with an unspoken meaning. It signifies that there is a problem but there is no action behind it to fix them. I believe that Red Ribbon Week is effective in bring awareness to the drug and alcohol problem but does not do anything about the actual problem.
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